In the wake of this morning’s shocking mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school, all of the broadcast networks will dedicate their Friday evening news programs to covering the tragedy.

ABC’s Diane Sawyer will anchor a special edition of World News (at 6:30/5:30c) from the scene of the shooting, which left more than 27 people — 20 young Sandy Hook Elementary School students included — dead. At 10 pm, Sawyer and Chris Cuomo will anchor 20/20: Tragedy at the Elementary School. ABC will then present an hour-long Nightline at 11:35 pm.

CBS has announced that Scott Pelley will anchor a special hour-long edition of the CBS Evening News, from Connecticut, starting at 6:30 pm. An hour-long CBS News Special Report will air at 10 pm.

NBC’s Brian Williams will anchor a one-hour edition of NBC Nightly News at 6:30 pm. At 10 pm, Williams and Lester Holt will anchor a special hour of Dateline devoted to the tragedy, which is the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting behind the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007.

Per the Associated Press, Lanza’s mother was among the six adults killed during the shooting. The shooter himself was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot after the assault; a .223-caliber rifle was reported to be one of multiple guns found at the scene.

You are an insensitive moron. This has nothing to do with politics today. This is a horrible event and our thoughts should be on the victims and the families. Save the political bs for another post. You criticize the Republican party but you are taking this article and post to further your political views and platform. Democrat, Republican or any other political party the focus should be on the victims.

Jenna, what happens if there is another senseless shooting tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after that. Because there will be another and more innocent people are going to die. There is no time to waste. Certainly, those involved should be given their peace, but the rest of us who were not directly affected should not sit silently and wait for the next senseless tragedy. The time to act is NOW, not later.

elf do you really think this is just a gun violence issue? Just this morning 22 children in china were attacked by a man with a KNIFE outside of their primary school, however of course something happening in china won’t make headlines…. People who want to attack will attack regardless of the means, if anything this is a mental health and awareness issue.

I’m really sick and tired of hearing people say, “Let’s wait and talk about this later”. We’ve been saying that for the last few months and then another mass shooting happens. We can’t wait. We need to discuss this now. This doesn’t HAVE to be a political thing if nobody makes it out as such. Daring to suggest that maybe there should be more restrictions on who can own guns should NOT be a political issue. I’m guessing everyone agrees this guy clearly shouldn’t have been allowed to have a gun? If so, then guess what, you’ve just supported some level of restriction.
Children died today. TWENTY of them. YOUNG CHILDREN. No. No more waiting on this issue. Let’s deal with it now. I’m tired of turning on the news every couple weeks and hearing about this.

Angela I never said anything about the intent of using a gun vs a knife, but you just illustrated my point. A mentally sane/stable person would not look at a knife and decide to go stab innocent children just as a mentally sane/stable person would not go into an elementary school and shoot innocent children. Its ignorant to say that all of these shootings are purely due to a gun violence issue.

You are right that there’s a multitude of issues related to this that should be dealt with, mental health absolutely being among them. But while what happened in China is just as equally horrible and tragic, guns are much more prevalent in these sorts of stories, hence why they’re going to be more of a focus. Most of the time it’ll be easier to take out an entire group of people with a gun than it will a knife. And we can’t keep denying that our country’s obsession with and fascination with guns, and how easy it is to get them, and the places that we can carry them now (we can carry them on certain campuses and in public parks and on public transit now), doesn’t exactly HELP the problem. The idea that mentally ill people can get their hands on guns alone is something that we need to address and stop.

max I was going to point out the knife attacks in china, just shows how ‘america-centered’ our news is instead of informing us of other issues going on in the world (as well). Especially considering how the attacks in china have been a string of periodic events and yet most people haven’t even heard of them

The kids in China LIVED. The wounds from knives are generally “cleaner” than a bullet wound that tears up internal organs, arteries, etc. The kids in Sandy Hill are dead. A person stands a chance of getting away from a knife attacker, not so much from a person with a gun.

I saw this and I’m getting ready to get my brother from school. I can’t even imagine something like that ever happening to him. My heart goes out to everyone who’s been affected by this horrible horrible tragedy.

I think dehumanizing the shooter as “psychotic” or “crazy” distances ourselves to the tragedy as out of the blue or something that doesn’t occur. But these violences do occur and unless there is understanding of the situation and of the man who did this–there will be no way to prevent it in the future. To say “it isn’t human” — I hear the justifiable horror and the anger but I do not see how it helps anyone to dismiss the man &/or issues (whether political, situational, mental — his own mother died in the shooting at her workplace- something isn’t right there) in order to see if there is a way to find solutions in this terribleness. It’s true- even ordinary people can do really devastating things to each other. It’s very striking when acts of violence (especially on children) are presented at our front door and not a world away. I do not know if I stated this well and would never wish to undermine the great sorrow and experience of the families involved–I simply can’t imagine.